Archives
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Too many Christians fail to recognize opportunities
Posted: 12/01/06
Too many Christians fail
to recognize opportunitiesBy Ken Camp
Managing Editor
BROWNWOOD—Christians miss divine appointments because too many churches fail to challenge members to recognize international contacts as missions opportunities, said Mary Carpenter, director of cross-cultural studies at Howard Payne University.
“Christians are traveling and doing business globally, but too often we, as churches, are not training them to think globally,” she said.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Stop inflammatory rhetoric about gays, theologian urges
Posted: 12/01/06
Stop inflammatory rhetoric
about gays, theologian urgesBy Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (ABP)—An evangelical theologian told her colleagues recently they must “cease and desist” publishing materials with “inflammatory language” about homosexuals.
Linda Belleville made the comments in an address to fellow members of the Evangelical Theological Society during the group’s annual conference in Washington.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Star Wars Force followers claim more Jedi than Jews in Great Britain
Posted: 12/01/06
Star Wars Force followers claim
more Jedi than Jews in Great BritainBy Al Webb
Religion News Service
LONDON (RNS)—A pair of London science fiction enthusiasts are petitioning the United Nations to formally recognize the Jedi Knights of Star Wars fame as a legitimate religion.
Umada and Yun-yun—known in real life as John Wilkinson and Charlotte Law—base their case on the results of Britain’s 2001 census in which some 395,000 followers of the Star Wars cult recorded their faith as “Jedi.”
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Laredo church prays for release of kidnapped members
Posted: 12/01/06
Laredo church prays for
release of kidnapped membersBy George Henson
Staff Writer
LAREDO—At press time, members of United Baptist Church in Laredo continued to pray for the safe return of the congregation’s treasurer and his son, along with another man.
Librado Pina Jr., United’s treasurer and a Laredo businessman, was kidnapped along with his son, Librado Pina III, two hunters and a cook from a ranch owned by Pina in Mexico near the border. The ranch is leased for deer hunting.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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MySpace lets youth ministers peek into teenagers’ lives
Posted: 12/01/06
MySpace lets youth ministers
peek into teenagers’ livesBy Chansin Bird
Religion News Service
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (RNS)—Youth minister Lara Blackwood starts her day the same way most of the young people at her church do. She signs on at MySpace.com.
“Any time they post a new blog, I get a message in my e-mail and cell phone that such and such has posted a new blog,” said Blackwood, youth minister at First Christian Church of Fayetteville, Ark., and a regional youth minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Poverty trumps hot-button issues with most voters
Posted: 12/01/06
Poverty trumps hot-button issues with most voters
By Hannah Elliott
Associated Baptist Press
WASHINGTON (ABP)—”Kitchen-table” issues like poverty and greed were more important to voters in this year’s midterm elections than issues usually trumpeted by religious groups, recent surveys revealed.
Commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the survey reported that faith groups who told voters to consider kitchen-table issues when voting had a 20 point higher national favorability rating than religious groups that told people to vote for candidates according to views on abortion and same-sex marriage.
“More than twice as many voters named poverty, greed and economic crisis as the biggest moral problems in the United States than abortion. When voters hear from groups that are emphasizing these issues, they like what they hear.” 12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Program gives poor families reason to give thanks
Posted: 12/01/06
Two HOPE program participants present Shontoya Watt (center) with a surprise turkey delivery just before Thanksgiving. Sarah Eubank, HOPE program supervisor, looks on in the background. Program gives poor families reason to give thanks
By Miranda Bradley
Children at Heart Ministries
ROUND ROCK—Shontoya Watt works hard to provide for her family, but living in a low-income housing complex, she hasn’t always found it easy to give thanks.
This Thanksgiving was different, due largely to Texas Baptist Children’s Home’s HOPE program.
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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TOGETHER: From Thanksgiving on to Christmas
Posted: 12/01/06
TOGETHER:
From Thanksgiving on to ChristmasThis season always comes as a special gift to me. Caught up between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my spirit begins to soar a bit more, like a bird riding the updrafts of sun-warmed air rising from overheated fields of freshly plowed earth or miles of urban asphalt.
Some of the exhilaration is purely family and memories. I have been blessed with family trips, warm welcomes and slowed-down schedules that hover around me like benedictions.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
One snowy day, we piled into our Volkswagen Beetle to hurry from my folks’ home to Rosemary’s folks’ home so we could spend part of Christmas day with both families. Racing across Oklahoma’s rolling hills, suddenly the front hood sprung loose and flew back against the windshield.
Three children were riding in the tiny backseat and “cubby space.” They squealed in amazement and then concern. “Daddy, don’t let the presents fall out!”
12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Wade to release Valley probe to law-enforcement officials
Posted: 12/01/06
Wade to release Valley probe
to law-enforcement officialsBy John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
MCALLEN—Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade will give law-enforcement officials complete copies of a BGCT-commissioned investigative report and all relevant exhibits regarding alleged misuse of convention church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley.
BGCT leaders are attempting to schedule a meeting with law-enforcement officials in an effort to gauge their interest in the documents.
• See complete list of Valley funds scandal articles 12/01/2006 - By John Rutledge
